Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 15:30:38 -0500 From: Matt Penna <mdp1261@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> To: questions@freebsd.org Cc: dustin@jam.rr.com Subject: Re: FreeBSD 4.4 on Low Memory Computer Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20020114145825.03459ec0@vmspop.isc.rit.edu> In-Reply-To: <20020114195128.GA31045@hades.hell.gr> References: <001101c19c9c$b97b2090$7c4ea218@nafj53dan292rg> <001101c19c9c$b97b2090$7c4ea218@nafj53dan292rg>
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At 09:51 PM 1/14/02 +0200, you wrote: >On 2002-01-13 17:42:23, Dustin C. wrote: > > I have a computer that is old. It has something like 8-11MB of RAM (It > > cannot hold anymore). FreeBSD installs just fine. But when I try to > > boot, I get an error saying something like "/kernel not found" and > > thats as far as it goes. Does anyone know how I could get it to work? Dustin, As the previous replies have said, it sounds like the install didn't complete properly. I had a similar problem on a machine with only 8MB of memory - the install would give a strange error during the networking portion and simply not proceed further. The documentation on the FreeBSD web site is no longer correct in terms of the amount of memory you need - 8MB is not sufficient. When I ran into this problem several months ago, I intended to submit a problem report and a correction, but other problems got in the way and I never researched when or to what amount the memory requirements changed. My advice is this: Find out for sure how much memory you have in the machine. Watch the screen immediately after the system's video is initialized and it will usually display the amount. If not on that screen, then enter the system's BIOS and see if the amount is listed there. If you only have 8MB, the FreeBSD 4.4 install will not work. If the system absolutely cannot take any more memory, about the only suggestion I have is to put the hard disk in another machine that has more memory, install to the disk, then put it back in the original machine. (This was suggested in a message in November for an unrelated problem. To quote that poster, "This will work fine, too, as FreeBSD does not create a suicide pact with the hardware ala windows." See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=freebsd-questions&m=100557071022200&w=2 ) If you can add more memory temporarily, put in 16MB and run through the install. Once the install is over, the system should boot and run fine on 8MB. It may even run on less, depending on your custom kernel configuration and what you're doing with the machine. Best of luck, and let us know how it turns out (for the benefit of the archives). I think I'll get to work on that PR before anyone else gets tripped up by the outaded docs... Matt -- Matt Penna mdp1261@rit.edu ICQ: 399825 S0ba on AOLIM "The trouble with computers, of course, is that they're very sophisticated idiots." -Dr. Who To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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